Serious Books for Serious Days

It had to happen. While spring lists brought inklings of difficult days for some publishers, fall offerings confirm the reality. Many in religion—as in other categories—are publishing fewer books, and some small houses seem to have gone MIA. The straitened economy, fears of terrorism and the war that isn't really over in Iraq are taking their toll.

Yet despite the ubiquitous mantra of more-muscle-behind-fewer-books, this publishing season brings surprising continuity in most subcategories in religion, and solid offerings on serious topics that were sparsely published before the new century began on such a terrible note. Books on the classic subjects of prayer and inspiration remain steady. Biblical studies has actually seen an uptick over the past two seasons, and daily devotional books appear to have made a comeback after falling off significantly this past spring. Books on Islam have moved beyond simple introductions to deeper examinations of how that faith affects and reflects its cultural context, both here and abroad. Books on interfaith dialogue and comparative religion have not reached the numbers of this past spring, but there are still many more such books being published since September 11; it would be surprising if that were not so. And it wasn't so long ago that each season brought only two or three books on politics and religion; now there are dozens. For fall, in a world filled with war and terrorism, the emphasis is strongly on peace—what religions teach about it and how they can help foster it.

One important change that has come into sharper focus is that, in contrast to the '90s, "spirituality" has become less useful as a subcategory. Fewer books are generically spiritual, entirely detached from a specific tradition. More readers seem to be interested in going deeper into the traditional faiths, and publishers are responding to that longing. Catholic houses, in particular, have significantly increased their title output and are tackling head-on the tough issues that church faces. Catholic houses seem also to have largely abandoned efforts to do "crossover" or general-interest books, choosing instead to focus on their own constituency.

With unemployment at its highest level in nearly a decade, lead titles on spiritual approaches to personal finance are much in evidence. These include books from evangelical Christian publishers such as Thomas Nelson, Broad & Holman, Tyndale House and Destiny Image, but also from Herald Press, an Anabaptist house, and Catholic publisher Sheed &Ward, as well as New Thought prosperity teaching from DeVorss. Although books on the spirituality of work have fallen back to their usual levels after a spike last fall, there are plenty of general ethics books in religion—another response to recent events and current concerns.

One of the saddest signs of the times is a new crop of books pointing to a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Among them are Preachers of Hate (Crown, Oct.) by Kenneth Timmerman (author of Shakedown), The New Anti-Semitism (Jossey-Bass, Sept.) by feminist author Phyllis Chesler, The Return of Anti-Semitism (Encounter, Oct.) by journalist Gabriel Schoenfeld and Never Again? (Harper San Francisco, Nov.) by Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League. We can only hope that exposing ancient grudges to the light will steal their power.

Of course, each season brings at least a few mega-books, and this fall Bantam will see if its $40-million-plus gamble pays off when it debuts Babylon Rising, the first book in Left Behind author Tim LaHaye's new End Times fiction series, this one written with Greg Dinallo. A 1,250,000 first printing and an unspecified—but surely substantial—ad/promo budget reflect high expectations, or at least nervous hope. Meanwhile, LaHaye's Left Behind coauthor Jerry Jenkins is also launching a new apocalyptic thriller series with Tyndale House. The first book, Soon, will be released in September.

Finally, in the midst of all this seriousness, could it be? After many fallow seasons, one of the signature publishing fads of the go-go '90s has made a tiny reappearance. Several publishers have angel books on their lists—an expression, perhaps, of nostalgia for more innocent times.